This recipe comes from the isle of Crete.
I first heard about these last week, and I blame that on my lack of touring the islands when I was in Greece.
I think it literally means “little girls” and I’m not going to comment on that. Apparently skalotsounia (ladders) and lihnarakia (or small pots, or small lamps) are other names for it, and none of those make any sense to me.
This is traditionally made with fresh soft cheese called mizithra. Depending who you ask, mizithra is made with cow milk, or goat and sheep milk, I assume it’s just made with whatever milk is available. It resembles ricotta cheese, and that’s all we really need to know for this recipe, and what the easy substitutions are.
It’s basically a turnover/hot pocket/mini-pie, and even though it’s not actually Greek, Crete is pretty close, so I assume this is going to be on the awesome side of things.
Kalitsounia
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup olive oil ( see #1 below )
- 1 cup Greek yogurt ( see #2 below )
- 1 egg large
- 1.5 cup sugar
- 35 oz flour (1 kg, or approx 6 cups )
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbsp orange juice (half an orange)
- 1 tbsp lemon zest (one large lemon)
Filling
- 35 oz fresh, soft myzithra cheese (1 kg) ( see #3 below )
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs 1 whole egg, and 1 egg white ( see #4 below )
- 1 tsp powdered cinnamon
Topping
- 2 eggs large ( see #4 below )
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp powdered cinnamon
- 1-2 tbsp honey for drizzing on the finished pastry ( optional )
Instructions
Dough
- To prepare the dough for the cheese pastries (kalitsounia), add into a large bowl the olive oil, sugar, yogurt and eggs; blend well, using your hands, until the ingredients combine.
- Pour in the orange juice, the lemon zest and vanilla extract and blend again.
- Sieve the flour with the baking powder and add gradually to the mixture.
- Knead the dough with your hands, until it softens. Depending on the flour, you may need to use a little bit less or more flour than the recipe calls for. The dough should be soft, but not sticky.
- Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Filling
- Mash the cheese into a large bowl, add the sugar, the eggs and the cinnamon; blend well, until the ingredients combine.
Assembly
- Place the dough on a floured surface.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a thickness of about 0.3 cm (1/8", or 2 quarters).
- Using a 10cm (4") cutter, cut out some circles.
- Add a tablespoonful of the cheese mixture in the center of each dough circle and spread it around.
- Raise the rim of the dough up around the cheese and using your fingers, pinch the edges to pull the dough in around the cheese, leaving the center open.
- Preheat the oven to 180C (355F).
- Place the cheese pastries on a large baking tray, lined with parchment paper and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
Topping
- Into a bowl, whisk 2 eggs plus remaining yolk, and 1 tbsp of water and brush the pastries.
- Sprinkle cinnamon powder on top.
Finally
- Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown.
- Serve with a drizzle of the optional honey.